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Arts & Culture

Byzantium invitation

Lobbying works! The Neil Jordan film, Byzantium, is to be shown at the local Odeon from this Friday.

Paul Field, a member of the St Leonards’ Film Society audience, has been lobbying StudioCanal and The Odeon cinema in Hastings to try and get a screening of the Neil Jordan film, Byzantium, which opened last Friday. Success! The film will now be available to watch from this coming Friday.

For anyone who doesn’t realise the importance of this film, it was partly shot along the seafront in Hastings with some locals working as extras.

The Observer newspaper held a ‘red carpet’ photo-shoot outside the Odeon this Wednesday. The photo above shows Danny Mooney, HOT’s Bevali Francis and Erica Smith, Dawn Dublin from St Leonards Film Society, and local residents who starred as extras in the film, including Julie Windus. Look out for them in the cafe scene!

Historical context… this is the second time a local resident has run a successful campaign to get a film screened at the Odeon. Back in 2010, HOT’s Erica Smith ran a Facebook campaign to get the Ian Dury biopic ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ screened in Hastings.